I always say to my kids when they aren’t sure about something new: You may like it, you will see! You may like it in a tree!

I asked on our FB page today what was holding people back from diving into the world of essential oils and most people responded with lack of education. They don’t know what to do and a few mentioned money. It took me 6 years to really dive into essential oils (I bought my first peppermint oil in February 2006) and didn’t really dive in until Jan 2012. I wish I would have taken the leap sooner! What helped me finally do it? A friend brought me EVERYTHING I needed! Seriously – she brought me the Modern Essentials book and a ton of oils and just said, “here – try them!” I had two really cool experiences with my kids right away that week. Sophie was up in the middle of the night with growing pains – I put peppermint on her legs. Before, I’d give her children’s pain reliever and I’d have to snuggle her for 30 minutes while she wailed and waited for it to kick in. Not even a minute after that peppermint was on her, she said, “Okay, I’m going back to sleep!” I was flabbergasted! It was January. Landon had a cold and cough for a few weeks and wasn’t sleeping well. I tried a blend called Breathe on his chest and he slept like a baby – so did I. WOW, a new mommy power!!! I was hooked!

I’m so grateful for my friend Cherie who gave me everything I needed. Can I give YOU everything you need? This week only, I’m giving away $1,000 worth of doTERRA Essential Oils! When you sign up with your own wholesale account, whatever you spend, I’ll give you the same amount for free (doesn’t have to be the exact same oils). I also have 4 Modern Essentials books to give away. Want one? Whoever signs up will go into a drawing for the books. Don’t worry if you don’t win the book. Sandi and I have so many online resources to hook you up with to help you learn!

I have to have your order in by Friday night and know what you want for free! The sooner you contact me though, the better. I’m due to have a baby on Thursday afterall :) Email learnaboutoilsnow@gmail.com with your name and phone number and Sandi or I will call you to help you know what to get started with and explain any details you need to know.

I have been so inspired by an upcoming event The Majesty of Motherhood that hasn’t even happened yet, but I wanted to share some of that inspiration with you! As Mothers, there are so many emotions and trials we go through. If I could tell Moms all over the world anything, it would be that what is on the manifesto below is true – read it – over and over – you deserve to feel that way about yourself!

Only 3 days left till the Majesty of Motherhood event. It’s time for nurturing and empowering yourself in your stewardship as a valuable woman and marvelous mother. Yes, I am talking to you and yes, indeed, you embody those aforementioned adjectives. :)

The speakers are amazing and I can’t wait to soak in all the enabling wisdom and goodness they have to share. I just may happen to have a few tickets to share with anyone who’d like to come:) , message me if this is something you’ve been wanting and would fill a need for you. Go to http://themajestyofmotherhood.eventbrite.com/# to register. Use the Promo Code “MOM” to receive $30 off!

When I started learning about essential oils for my own family last year, I started asking Healthy Mom’s Kitchen readers about their interest in learning as well and was overwhelmed by the response. Moms are READY to know about these gifts from the Earth, ready to feel empowered by what God created for our use and ready to share with others.

Healthy Mom’s Kitchen educators – Nisha and Sandi – are ready to start spreading this message of health in a bigger way and we’re looking for HOSTS. Maybe you’re not local to us but still have a desire to learn about oils among your friends and family. That’s why we created our Hostess Incentive Program for Virtual Classes!

Here’s how it works:

Book your class 3 weeks in advance.

We create the Facebook Page to help you invite friends and family.

2 Weeks prior to the class, we will send you samples to give your RSVPed guests so that they can try the oils before the class.

We will email guests information on how to use the samples as well as information about a fun contest we play during the class for them to earn free stuff!

Immediately following the class, you and your guests will have an option to buy doTERRA essential oils at wholesale prices AND earn lots of great free tools to help them put the oils to use in your homes.

YOU, the hostess will get a free diffuser ($60 value) just for hosting a class with 10+ people or more with a class overall totals of $250 or more (trust us – you are going to LOVE this!). Additionally, your guests will have opportunities to earn a free Modern Essentials book ($35 value), a handy keychain ($6 value) for taking small vials of oils with them on the go, and more!

I don’t know about you, but a few years ago – at 26 years YOUNG, I started having problems with my knees when I was running. I feel like my joints have always been weak sauce. I used to sprain my ankles ALL the time, have the knee problems when running, and have weak wrists. Lame, right?! It turns out my family is prone to getting osteopeonia. Grateful my mom let me know that at a young age – I’ve been taking calcium supplements for years. But, for those times when I am experiencing some aches, I’m GRATEFUL for Deep Blue Rub! It is one of my all-time favorite products from doTERRA and this month – they gave me some for FREE :) Watch this webinar to learn more about what exactly Deep Blue Rub is and let me know if you too would like to get some for free.

I am so excited to share with you today 5 Steps to Achieving Your Goals with Accountability Partners.

Have you ever secretly made a goal, but didn’t tell anyone because you didn’t want to have to report back to them on your progress? Let me guess – when you did this, you never achieved your goal. You never stepped outside that safe box of comfort to really stretch and grow and make it happen.

I recently set a BIG goal in my doTERRA business and I signed up for an amazing coaching program called Creating With God because I wanted to make God my CEO and put Him in charge of the people my business serves so that I can do more. In Kelly’s program, she set up an accountability partnership system to help us achieve our goals and it has done WONDERS for me!!! Here are the biggest differences it has made in my life.

1) I have a fabulous new friend! Wait til I tell you about what she is creating!
2) I’m WAY more effective at planning my time and more excited about it. For example, I’m no longer planning late Sunday night, I’m planning my next week on Friday afternoon or Saturday. By that point in the week, I’ve accomplished all I needed to and can’t wait to make plans for the next week so I can relax on the weekend.

3) Because of the increase in my productivity, I’m creating bigger results! I’m on track to achieve my goal!

The most important piece to this system (in my opinion) is the partner you pick. I am so glad I met Jenny (The Happy Gal) at a recent blog conference I spoke at (Build Your Blog Conference). She and I had an instant connection and knew we were so like minded. Even though I didn’t know her much at all, I asked her to be my accountability partner. She isn’t someone so close to me that she would make excuses for me. Have you ever chosen your mom or sister or best friend to be your accountability partner, but they know you sooo well, that they let you off the hook? Jenny and I don’t have that – so this is working really well for us!

How does the Accountability Partner System work? Here are the 5 Steps:

Choose your partner (be wise in this choice!)

Email your partner your goal (we have 8 week goals)

On Mondays, send your partner your plan for the week

On Saturday, report back with a simple yes or no if you’ve done those things

Repeat

Jenny and I communicate over email. There are no scheduled calls, no time out of our day to support each other – just loving, cheering, accountable emails to each other. It’s perfect!

What are you currently working on that you could use an accountability partner in? If you don’t think you know someone who could really hold you accountable in your goal – go meet someone new! There are so many opportunities out there to meet new people. Attend a conference, training, networking group, or fun event where like minded people will be. Reach out! You never know who God will put right in front of you to help you achieve more!!

The joy of losing so much weight the week before came crashing down as I stepped on the scale this morning. I was fully prepared for another huge result. I had been following my plan to the T. Why would I expect a less-than desirable weigh in? I must have made an error somewhere along the way.

In my analysis of last week, I came to some conclusions. My food consumption is still like that of a hard-working lumberjack and yet I seem to stay hungry. I am drinking more water than in the past but most likely not enough. I have not started the exercise program that was recommended for this lifestyle. I am eating more fruit than is suggested for weight loss. No, I am not following the program to a T after all.

I am not one to sit in my discomfort for too long. After a short abusive moment in my head, I realized I had two choices. I could head to the kitchen and pop a frozen waffle in the toaster or I could take my 1lb weight loss and turn it into a victory! I chose the latter.

Staying on course when the light becomes dim can make for some challenging moments. In the not so distant past, I would have given up. Talked myself into failure. Reasoned that success is clearly not my option. But what do I truly have to gain by staying in that mindset?

Actually, in this particular case.…just more weight.

How many of us sabotage ourselves when our successes seem too insignificant to make a difference? Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, a professor at the University of Calfornia, Berkeley says: [paraphrased]

“Believing that your ability is fixed is great when the [task] is easy (“I’m brilliant!”), but puts you at risk for disengagement when the [task] is hard and you don’t do well (“I suck; why [bother] anyway?”). By contrast, if you believe your ability is something to nurture and grow, those same challenges become indicators of growth and development.”

Let’s face it, changing an entire decade of poor eating habits is hard. We can’t expect perfection. Putting that kind of demand on our psyche is not only unreasonable but dangerous to the forward movement. If we just realize we are inclined to setbacks, and can accept this with a greater self-awareness we just might protect ourselves from undermining our own pursuits.

I expect that I will have some monumental successes in weeks to come and with that, some less significant ones too. In the final analysis of the larger picture maybe what I truly want is continued growth toward the ultimate goal and a degree of self love that forgives when goals are barely met. Today I stand one pound lighter which is one pound closer to long term health, appropriate physical fitness and a certain amount of ‘dang, I’m hot!’

So during the caterpillar eat-fest stage of my life, I was content to put just about anything into my mouth as long as it had flavor. But during this past summer, I became morbidly aware of my health and future life as a nearly 300lb woman. Sudden death was most certainly looming around just waiting for me to devour that last ‘Twinkie’ or ‘Ding Dong’. The fear of being ‘this way’ for the remainder of my existence was enough to catapult me into a search for the kind of change I was literally dying to make. In my quest for knowledge, I came across a plan that I believed I could convert to and have ultimate success with. I did my due diligence and the journey to becoming a butterfly began.

Paleo. Short for Paleolithic, was the food plan I had chosen. This diet mimics the types of foods our caveman ancestors ate prior to the Agricultural Revolution. A diet rich in fruits, vegetables, meats and seafood, I could ultimately eat as much as I wanted and have success losing weight. Brilliant! A food plan that was meant for me. Thankfully, in today’s world, I will not have to go spear fishing, braless in a loin cloth but rather visit my local market for some fresh, pre-cut organic produce and a slice of meat.

So week one started and as one would expect, I was ravenous. It didn’t seem to matter how much I ate, I was still hungry. Coming off sugar, soda, caffeine, carbs of all kinds was enough on it’s own but to be starving too? Come on! On around the 4th day, it seemed as though I would never stop eating. My meals included: 4 eggs and 4 sausage links with 2 apples for breakfast, a hand full of strawberries and some walnuts for a snack, some fresh asparagus for a 2nd mid morning snack, a mini wild-animal moment with a rotisserie chicken and some lettuce at lunchtime, 3 lettuce wrapped hamburgers as my pre-dinner appetizer and some pineapple and ham for dinner. Despite all that eating, I begged my husband later that evening to ‘just take me out for a steak’ . In an effort to avoid having his thigh become a rotisserie item, he complied and I was satisfied for a few hours by a juicy steak and a double side of steamed broccoli. I was in heaven.

Something changed though on that day because the next morning when I woke up, I was no longer on the hunt for my prey but content with a reasonable amount of food for the average person. For the remainder of the week, I had what I consider to be a normal appetite. No desire for candy or coke or junk of any kind. It was a powerful lesson to me about the the reality of my addiction to sugar in any form.

During the ‘normal eating phase’ of this week, I had to make a trip to Wal-Mart for something and I didn’t plan the trip well and got hungry. In the old days, I would have strolled over to the bakery or chip aisle but instead I went looking for a Paleo-friendly snack. As I pushed the cart, a clarity came over me that had never been there before. “There is ‘nothing’ in this store that is real food!” I realized that the majority of the store is filled with boxes and bags and pre-wrapped, non food items that America is calling food. I wandered back to the produce and grabbed a bag of carrots and some celery and checked out. But I was changed. No wonder Hostess used the tagline ‘Because tasting is believing’ in the 70’s. For so long I believed that if it tasted like food, it must _be_ food. Thank goodness I now know the best way to optimum health is by eating whole foods and saying ‘no’ to the boxes claiming to be real!

Thank goodness there are raw carrots in a bag for this very hungry housewife.